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And This Is What “Stand Your Ground” Is All About

Two young thugs storm into an internet cafe in Florida with a bat and a gun, and start herding everyone together to rob them – at the very least.

Sam Williams – a 71 year old guy with a carry permit – legitimately fearing death or great bodily harm (lest we forget, there are A GUN AND A BASEBALL BAT pointed at him and the rest of the customers), draws and fires, wounding both of the attackers and sending them scampering for their lives.

It’s a beautiful thing – criminals wetting themselves with fear:

That’s two criminals (and, most likely, Democrat voters) off the street.

No word yet on whether President Obama thinks the lads “look just like him” or not.

Here’s the point: in Florida, if the shooting is ruled legitimate self-defense, the shooter – Sam Williams – will be immunized from being sued by the victims thugs.

If this were in Minnesota? The two probable DFL voters thugs, from jail, would have every right to run out and find themselves a couple of personal injury lawyers (most of whom are DFL voters and contributors) and try to sue Mr. Williams back to the stone age. At best, Mr. Williams will spend whatever is in his retirement to defend himself against the people who’d threatened to kill him for his money; at worst, he’ll be cleaned out. Ruined.

“I thought…” – no, like any good anonymous lib, you didn’t think. You repeated what you were told.

Like a cheetah effortlessly outmaneuvering a water buffalo, I have long since disposed of the “VPC’s” list. It lumps a lot of very justifable homicides together with a lot of very ambiguous shootings.

But here’s all you really need to know; using the VPC’s numbers, as they presented them, I calculated that even if you accept the VPC’s slanted, worst-case numbers, they show that concealed carry permittees nationwide are two orders of magnitude less likely to commit unjustified than the general public per capita – and a citizen in the general public that is unjustifiably murdered is three orders of magnitude less likely to be killed by a CCW permittee.

Two lessons for you, Ears:
1. Carry permittees are better people than the general public
2. As usual, you are years behind and aeons slower than me.

To me it was a bit disappointing how poorly the .380 performed in this case. Not that I’d ever carry something that small, but if we’re talking about someone with a smaller build and weaker hands the .380 is attractive. Despite several .380 slugs those guys are still moving pretty quickly, more quickly than I’d like, but at least moving away.

Nerdbert – you make an important point. Shooting a guy with a pistol doesn’t cause him to blast backwards nor does it incapacite him instantly – that’s Dirty Harry stuff in the movies only. The citizen was lucky the shooters didn’t return fire. That said, a .380 in your pocket is worth more than a safe full of heavy weapons in your basement.

Adrenaline does the damnedest things to people. It makes people able to shake off the most amazing damage and limitations – temporarily. The .380 didn’t knock ’em down – and either would a 9mm or .38 spl, most likely. Not immediately. People have been hit by rifle rounds packing 10-20x the muzzle energy of that .380 and kept moving – for a while.

And nothing discourages returning fire like the prospect of another shot coming shortly.

What Nate said. The .380 you have is better than the .45 you left at home. For some of us, the.380 would hypothetically be the biggest thing we could prudently carry under our various circumstances, if we did carry.

It is regrettable that Mr. Williams’ aim wasn’t truer. Because now the taxpayers will be on the hook for these punks’ room and board for the next 3 -5 years. But on balance, I guess we’ll have to call this a win for the good guys.

Give Sam a medal. (and maybe the address of a nearby target range 🙂 ) I worry the state will go after him though for continuing to fire and moving towards the thugs. Instead of firing once, then politely standing down and saying ok, I had my turn, you make take your shot now. What does Florida law say about how much one can pursue and continue to fire?

Leaving aside second-guessing the caliber of the pistol, look at what the citizen did right. He focuses on the perp with the pistol as the larger threat. He waits until the perp’s back is turned for surprise (avoiding getting shot himself). He takes a two-handed grip for maximum control. He flexes his knees for balance and keeps one foot back, for mobility. He advances to within 5 feet to maximize odds of hitting the target and has a background clear of innocents.in case he misses. He aims each shot and fires purposefully, not wantonly. Damned nice job.

nerdbert,
the .380 cartridges he was using would make a big difference, a 102 gr BJHP would have much more punch than a 70 gr FMJ, but the .380 isn’t known for “anchoring” your malefactor, its more of a “persuader”.

Oh, the DA has announced that he doesn’t plan to file charges and unless the MSM manages to pull an NBC on the tape I doubt he’ll have much pressure to change his mind. It’s tougher to argue Grandpa was not in danger any time the perps were near him, and with the Florida “stand your ground” law he’s able to defend others from those creeps, i.e. keep shooting until they are clean away from anyone, no matter if they’re running from him.

The article that referenced the videohas an interview with the perps and it’s hilarious, frankly. The “we didn’t mean to hurt anybody and the dude shot us!” attitude makes you wonder that they made it out of middle school. Turns out one of the perps was fired from the place, so you have to wonder if there was really that much desperation involved or some more personal feelings that might have made the situation worse.

You’re right about the actions of the old guy, and I noticed that. But still, the total lack of stopping power in his selection of gun/ammo was disappointing given that he was doing everything else right, which was my point. No disrespect to the old guy was meant at all. Despite being under armed, he went after a crook half a century younger carrying a .45 cal pistol without hesitation and that takes serious guts.

Twice before the Zimmerman-Martin incident, Sharpton has jumped to conclusions and made libelous accusations of racism that ended with innocent people being killed or having their lives ruined.
So what did the msm do when Sharpton came calling last March with unproven allegations? “How how do you want us to jump, Mr. Sharpton, sir?”